– Oh? “Nice”. Let’s continue like this. Cool, says Vipers player Ana Vyakhireva when she learns that the club has never had a better start in the Champions League. That Vipers Kristiansand will win handball matches is almost as certain as Noregs Bank raising the key interest rate during the day. On Saturday evening, they did it again. Vipers beat Danish Odense 34-27 in the Meisterliga. Thus, the southerners have won all the first three matches in the group stage this season. They have never done that before. – That’s lovely. Of course, you always want a good start. That we get it now is just a bonus, says Vipers player Ragnhild Valle Dahl. And not enough of that. Vipers have won nine straight games in the Champions League, if you take the end of last year’s season as a gold medal. See interview with Vipers player Ana Vyakhireva. Ten strong minutes of Saturday’s showdown at home against Odense started right away. 20 minutes into the first half, the Vipers were leading 9–8. Then coach Ole Gustav Gjekstad took a timeout. That would change the game completely. Vipers hammered in one goal after another. At the other end, the defense and goalkeeper Katrine Lunde were as stingy as Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has announced that he will be when the state budget is presented soon. The sum of this resulted in 16-10 at the break. – I don’t actually remember anything about it. I don’t think we did anything new. We continued to play as we should. But I think maybe we were a little more patient, says Vyakhireva. – I don’t know what we did, we were just good, laughs linebacker Ana Debelic. – We get to stress them a bit in defence. We are aggressive and they make technical mistakes. We saw the chances in attack and then it will be good, says Valle Dahl. See interview with Vipers player Ragnhild Valle Dahl. Top of the group The second half was a pure parade for a Vipers team that could smile all the way to the “score bank”. Odense, with the Norwegian players Tonje Løseth and Maren Aardahl, were simply several numbers too small against the title defenders in the Meisterliga. Thus, it will be a difficult trip “home” with the Danish ferry on Sunday. The comfort is that good weather has been reported over Skagerak. Two new Vipers points, on the other hand, means that the southerners top their group. – Vipers continue in the track they ended last year’s season. They are better this year than at the same time last year, says news’s handball expert Peder Langfeldt. It bodes well for a Vipers team that won the Champions League for the second year in a row last season. It was a difficult trip to Kristiansand for Maren Aardahl and Odense. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB
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Vipers have never had a better start in the Meisterliga – news Sørlandet – Local news, TV and radio
